US President Joe Biden holds up his face mask as he speaks about the COVID-19 pandemic during a primetime address from the East Room of the White House in Washington. Photo: AP

US President Joe Biden issued a statement on Wednesday, ordering US intelligence agencies to "redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information" on the origins of the novel coronavirus, including "whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident," and report to him in 90 days. It is a rare and illogical instruction. People cannot help asking, what exactly does Washington want? 

A WHO expert team has basically ruled out the possibility that the pandemic started from a Wuhan lab leak. Investigations on the origins of a virus are the most difficult scientific research. What can intelligence personnel do in this regard? Apart from the fact they do not have capabilities for scientific tasks, they are full of political loyalty and would do anything to serve their national interest which has been narrowly defined by US political elites. Demanding intelligence agencies to complete what scientists have not achieved is a strong political signal.

Biden said that the intelligence community's current position is: "While two elements in the IC lean toward the former scenario [it emerged from human contact with an infected animal] and one leans more toward the latter [it emerged from a laboratory accident] - each with low or moderate confidence - the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other." 

How much information that scientists could not find can be dug out by the intelligence community? Was this some mission conducted by the Ethan Hunt Team or Agent 007, who steal and kill?

No matter what Biden has in mind, the US government is generally up to something big against China. US executive bodies, Congress, intelligence departments, and public opinion are forming a crazy spiral. Their ultimate goal is to create and hold China accountable for the pandemic outbreak, making a new tool to severely thwart China's national interests.

This is a big lie. German Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels once said: "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth." The US' radical political elites are engaged in a fever of intense competition with China. In a bid to achieve the goal, they are increasingly Nazi-like in their belief and can do whatever it takes.

Washington may not yet have a precise plan for what attacks it will launch against China regarding the origins of the coronavirus, but the momentum to do so is gathering at an accelerating pace, and the conditions are taking shape.

For example, when the Trump administration was passing the buck to China, the Democratic Party offered very limited cooperation on account of benefits in the election campaign. Pro-Democratic mainstream media outlets in the US often focused on the Trump administration's failure to fight the epidemic and stressed his responsibility for the raging pandemic, with some states controlled by the Democratic Party collecting cases that went undetected earlier in the US epidemic. Now the situation is completely different. The Democratic Party in power has inherited the strategy of the Republican administration in suppressing China and is in the front line of accusing China over the epidemic. The Republicans are only interested in taking credit for being tough on China with the Democrats, thus forming a complete alliance between the two parties to attack China.

In addition, the US and Europe used to have many divergences. Biden has reinforced the coordination of pressure on China within the West. As a result, the US is less unlikely to be opposed in the West when it makes any evil or unjustified moves to China over the pandemic.

The Biden administration may continue to place the blame on China over the pandemic as the Trump administration did. Maybe it will go even further. Rogue claims such as calling China to account and even asking China for compensation may not be ruled out as part of the Biden administration's practical policy. They may not expect to achieve their objectives, but they may use these hooligan-like approaches as an additional bargaining chip in its competition with China, in a bid to achieve indirect gains.

We need to abandon any illusions. The Biden administration will not obey the rules. It will continue most of the Trump administration's ferocious moves. After repackaging them, they will roll out these tactics and the effects of these practices will be amplified. They are further waging their public opinion and political preparations to pass the buck of COVID-19 in the US and the West to China. 

We have seen the moves and rhetoric of some US scientists are increasingly politicized. And social media platforms like Facebook have gradually taken action. We must remain highly vigilant and ready to repel their frantic attacks at any moment.